The Master and His Apprentices is designed to give students a solid foundation in art history. It is written from a Christian worldview and incorporates scriptures into the study. The Master and His Apprentices helps readers understand history through art and helps create a “visual” timeline of biblical and world events. Unlike most other art history curriculum, this one does not contain nudity, but instead focuses on various masterpieces artists created during specific historical periods.

The Master and His Apprentices can be completed independently by highschool students or adapted to be used by the whole family. This course is available in both a digital version and a physical book version. This is a full curriculum, covers over 125 hours of instruction (text, notes, discussions, worksheets, research papers, and exams), and can be used for highschool elective credit.

Text:

The Text is about 372 +/- printable pages and contains reprints of ancient art, architecture, statues, paintings, and relics from around the world throughout history.

It covers around 19 different historical and cultural focuses condensed and divided into 6 historical periods. The course starts out with an introduction to art history. Then a brief focus on the first six days of creation and Father God as the first artist. Next it covers man-made art, sculptures, relics, and buildings from around the world throughout different cultures and periods in history. It also covers art related vocabulary and related concepts used in art such as: Design and Composition, Line and Shape, Value and Color, Style and Texture, etc.

Teacher Guide:

The Teacher Guide is about 60-70 +/- printable pages (they are not numbered).

This book includes a suggested schedule with week by week instructions, worksheets that can also be used as discussion questions, four exams, instructions for writing four course papers on artists from different time periods, grading chart, answer keys, and more.

A suggested schedule is to do the class over 36 weeks or divided into (2) 18-week semesters. This course can also be used as a supplement to other curriculum (world history, bible history, ancient history, etc).

Author:

Gina has been a teacher and author for over 12 years. She is a home school and college graduate. I have been very impressed with things she has shared about her experiences and why she wrote this curriculum.

She states her goal in writing this curriculum is: “From the beginning, I’ve been praying that God would use this book to draw non-believers to Himself and to push believers even further into Jesus as His fingerprints become more visible in creation and history.”

She says she has watched students transform as they connect the Creator to Art History. From her website, she states “In fact, often for the first time in their lives, they were able to make connections between their different classes. Visually “seeing” the periods allowed them to create a framework in their minds for combining various timelines from other disciplines, be it history, Bible, literature, science, philosophy, etc. More importantly, many students were awaking to the fact that the Bible isn’t just a story, but real history – a history that overlaps other famous periods, places, people, and events.”

Our Experience:

For the purpose of this review, I focused on my son who loves art. He wants to be an artist (drawing and painting), and a craftsman (with wood and leather) himself. However, all three of my highschool boys are taking this course for highschool elective credit.

We were sent the digital versions of this curriculum which included:

Digital Text ~ The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective

Digital Teacher Guide

Digital Print/Photocopy Rights for our household.

With the digital versions, you can view the curriculum on the computer and you have the option to print out what you need if desired. The Print/Photocopy Rights give you the permission to print additional copies for multiple students in your household. Or you can purchase the physical book versions if there are things you want a physical copy of and if you don’t want to print them yourself.

After using the program on the computer (Text and Teacher Guide), and printing the worksheets as we needed them, I decided to purchase the physical copy of the Teacher Guide too. I actually purchased three Teacher Guides so that all three of my highschool sons have their own book to write in. We were fine with the colorful digital copy of the Text book to read on the computer, but having a physical copy of the Teacher Guide in front of me and my sons simplified things so I didn’t have to go back and forth to the printer for the worksheets.

So far, my son is enjoying this course. There is a lot of information covered and he is very motivated. He has other courses with overlapping information that he is doing at the same time for: Ancient History, Bible History, and World History and Art. So this class is mirroring what he is learning in those courses and increasing his knowledge about various art, history, cultures, and what we know about them.

He has no problem completing the worksheets. The worksheets are filled with questions and give you space to answer, usually answers are a phrase or a few sentences. You can also use these questions for discussion. There are also a few pages to diagram. We have not yet completed a test or a research paper though. But I have no doubt he will do well as this is a subject he enjoys and is motivated to complete.

My Personal Thoughts:

I hope I am getting wiser in my “old age”. I know I am getting bolder in my faith and sharing what God has put on my heart and my understanding of scripture. So that is what I am about to do, and you can skip this section of my review if you don’t want to hear it. I have a lot more to say, and I will post more (a continuation) in a future post. But here is a very brief statement.

I appreciate the Author’s love for Father God and her desire to help students understand bible history as they learn about art history. I also appreciate her hope that people will draw near to Jesus as their savior. She has done a good job putting art history and bible history together. The bible scriptures she has included and in depth timelines help to connect the dots of events in history, bible events, and art.

However, I have some misgivings about using art history or any art appreciation curriculum to draw students close to “god”. There are so many different gods and idolatry represented in artwork from cultures around the world that I believe people can actually be led away from Father God while they are “appreciating” art if they are not very careful.

I personally believe most things in this world that fall under “art appreciation” and “art history” and “ancient history” and “world history” would be things Father God has warned us to stay away from.

Colossians 2:8 ” Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah (Jesus of Nazareth, Yahusha HaMeshiac).”

I have sincerely questioned over the years whether or not Father God wants us to study what the world calls “art” from history. There is a HUGE difference in knowledge and wisdom. Much of what we learn in academics is just knowledge. Society asks us “How much do we know?” Society “ranks” us and often pays us by what we know.

The “god” of every society on earth is the same deceiving serpent from the garden that was there when man first fell away from Father God, Yahuah, our Creator. Do we really want to teach our kids to glorify and appreciate the statues, buildings, pyramids, paintings, and man-made creations that honor another god? Should we not sound the alarm and send out warnings and cautions to teach them not to glorify it?

Matthew 24:6 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).”

But the real question should not be “what do you know” but rather “Does what we “know” draw us closer to Father God?” OR “Does “knowing more” draw us farther away from him?” For example in scripture, Adam and Eve bit the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil when the serpent deceived them and told them to “appreciate” the forbidden fruit, he told them to “behold it, look at it, taste it, it will give you more knowledge, you will not die but you will become like god”. Another example is in the lives of the Israelite’s who mixed all the cultural practices of Egypt, Greeks and Roman gods and traditions (and so many more examples) and what they “knew” and their “appreciation” of the “art” and idols of these other cultures actually drew them away from Father God, not closer to him.

Mark 7:9 “Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition!”

Or put in context, it reads as “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines. You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. Indeed, you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition!” Mark 7: 7-9

Until the church members of the Bride of Jesus of Nazareth, Yahusha HaMeshiac, wake up and see the truth, their brains will continue in gaining knowledge, but their spirit will lack discernment of truth, vision of the spirit, wisdom, and the power to defeat spiritual wickedness.

Perhaps most “great works of art” are proof of man’s sin against Almighty God. Most famous works of art are a direct violation of God’s command to not create a graven image and not create idols and not worship any other gods. Most are attached to demons and worship of deities and even in more modern art, many artists have shared they were under the influence of something evil and supernatural when they created their masterpiece. In my early Christian walk, I was shocked when I first learned that demons are real, not just something from two thousand years ago, and not just someone’s imagination in modern horror movies and mental illness as we are led to believe, but instead they are real entities. More recently I was also shocked to learn that many famous artists, musicians, and writers of “great” masterpieces were plagued by demons and blood sacrifice. Yet Christians glorify these things that “artists” create and display them in their homes, education, communities, and churches.

1 Corinthians 12:2 “Remember the way you used to live when you were Gentiles (pagans) apart from God? You were engrossed—enchanted with voiceless idols, led astray by mere images carved by human hands.”

Jesus of Nazareth said that “traditions of men nullify the power of God in your life”. The church has no power because they have traded their trust in the anointed word of Father God for “trust” and “appreciation” in man-made traditions. He also said if the spirit of Father God is in you, then you will do greater things in this earth than he did. How many Christians do you know who have done “greater”? How many do you know who have healed someone, opened prisons, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, made the lame to walk, cast out demons, etc.? The church today is in bondage to buildings, demons (denominations) and “famous works” of literature and art and the traditions of men, academics, sports, pharmacia, artificial intelligence, music, and material possessions, and it lacks power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God.

I have prayed for discernment and have prayed that my family will see the world as Father God sees it. I pray that we will avoid being deceived by the “things that look good to eye” and “desirable” in this world. I pray Father God will give us eyes full of compassion, that look for his goodness, and beholds what is upright, and for lips that speak truth and show kindness and charity to others, but also hearts that are wise and filled with truth and discernment.

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

Final Thoughts:

If you are looking for a thorough Art History curriculum, then The Master and His Apprentices will give you a historical understanding of famous works of art and artists, and an indepth timeline of art pieces and events, including biblical events, in history that will meet highschool requirements for Art History and Art Appreciation.

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BIO

I am a sinner, saved by grace. I am on a journey and offer to share my story with the hope that it will bless you. My one desire is to bring glory to my creator.

I am a wife and the mother of six children, plus two in heaven. I enjoy homeschooling, research, teaching, homesteading, natural gardening, grass based farming, cooking, fresh raw milk, herbs, children, midwifery, and music. I am a writer, biblical mentor, and also work part time in the healthy foods and vitamin business www.weisernaturalfoods.com I have a BSW degree from Kansas State University, and trained professionally as a medical social worker, biblical counselor, tutor, and vocal performer.

Thank you for stopping by to read about our homeschool and family life adventures. Be blessed!